A series about crime scene
investigators is bound to deal with some distasteful subjects. But C.S.I. takes it a step further by
providing graphic depictions of decaying bodies, grisly crime scenes, brutal
murders, and themes of incest and sado-masochism. Such content would be bad
enough at 10:00 at night, but this series airs at 9:00 (remember, that's 8:00
in the Central and Mountain time zones), with reruns often airing during the
Family Hour.

This season, episodes of
C.S.I. have included story lines about cannibalism, S&M sex clubs, and
pornographic snuff films. Episodes this season have also contained scenes
depicting a man receiving oral sex in an alley, the mutilated victims of a
deranged killer, and a man in bed with two women.

2.Kingpin

NBC/ 10:00 p.m. (ET/PT)
Sunday -- first season

This season
NBC tried to cash-in on the success of HBO's The Sopranos by copying all of the
worst aspects. Stomach-turning brutality, explicit sex, and drug abuse were
all front-and-center on Kingpin.

Kingpin is centered on the
criminal protagonist Miguel Cadena, a Mexican drug lord and troubled family
man.

In the six episodes that
aired this February, the PTC counted 16 raunchy depictions of sex, 23 murders,
eight depictions of torture, and 16 instances of drug use. In one
particularly gruesome episode, a man is shown tossing a human leg to his pet
tiger.

In another episode, Miguel
and General Valdez talk about their experiences with prostitutes. Valdez
tells Miguel, "Me and Jorge, we screwed a lot of whores. Your uncle, he liked
them to be young. Fifteen, sixteen years old." A few moments later, Valdez
pulls down his pants so he and Miguel can compare genital size. His groin
area is barely obscured by a strategically placed statue. In yet another
episode, a man is brutally beaten and then sodomized by a police officer.

3. Fastlane

Fox/ 8:00 p.m. (ET/PT)
Friday -- first season

Van Ray is recruited by
Police Lieutenant Billie Chambers to work with his former partner's brother,
Deaqon Hayes. Van and Deaqon move freely and inconspicuously through the seedy
underworld of gangsters and criminals by taking advantage of Billie's "Candy
Store," a warehouse full of seized cars and high-good ends.

Fastlane
is a fast-paced series that employs the quick-cut techniques used in music
videos and is intended to appeal to young male demographic. This strategy was
apparent in the suggestively-titled episode, "Strap On," which advertised a
lesbian kiss.

Episodes regularly contain
high volumes of explicit sex. The season premier features a long video
montage of Van having sex with a female suspect on top of a pile of money. In
another, Van is shown having sex with a female assassin. Scenes of Van
running his hands all over the woman's nearly naked body are interspersed with
scenes of the woman shooting at people. At one point, the woman's breasts are
mostly exposed, covered only by Van's hands. Episodes also frequently feature
graphic depictions of violence, including several scenes where blood can be
seen flying from the victim's body as the bullets hit.

4.
NYPD Blue

ABC/ 10:00 p.m. (ET/PT)
Tuesday -- not ranked last season

NYPD
has never been appropriate
for children and remains steadfastly mature in its content. But because the
series has generally aired during the last hour of prime time and is not
pitched to children, it has managed to avoid ranking on this list for much of
its run.

This year, however, the
series took a decided turn for the worse. NYPD Blue has always used some of
the most explicit language to be heard on broadcast television, including
"prick," "dick," "bitch," "asshole," and the like. This year, new words were
added to the series' obscene lexicon – including "bullshit."

NYPD
Blue
has also never been shy about featuring steamy sex scenes that include shots
of the actors' naked buttocks, but the series' producers have become bolder
this season by making the sex scenes more explicit. In one episode from this
season, Connie, a recurring character, is shown completely naked for an
extended period of time. The camera grabs a close up of her exposed buttocks
and her exposed breasts in profile. When Detective Sipowicz's young son Theo
walks in on her as she's about to take a shower, she turns around and is shown
at full-length, barely covering her breasts with one arm and her pubic area
with her hand.

5.Fear Factor

NBC/ 8:00 p.m. (ET/PT)
Monday -- not ranked last season

For sheer gross-out
stupidity, it's hard to outdo Fear Factor
-- a game show in which contestants vie for a $50,000 prize by
performing strenuous or disgusting stunts.

It's a sad reflection on
the viewing tastes of the American public that this series has survived as
long as it has. Stunts this season have included contestants lying down in a
vat filled with snakes, cockroaches, scorpions, or rats; eating the penises
and testicles of various animals; eating the rectum of a horse, the
sperm-filled reproductive glands of a cod fish, slugs washed down with cow
bile, partially developed duck eggs, and liquefied pig livers; milking a goat
using one's mouth; and bobbing for rings in fifty gallons of cow's blood.

6.
Angel

WB/ 9:00 p.m. (ET/PT)
Sunday -- not ranked last season

This Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin-off
stars David Boreanaz as a centuries-old vampire searching for redemption while
fighting evil in Los Angeles.

Despite its young target
audience, Angel routinely
features gory violence and graphic sexual encounters. Scenes frequently
involve intense fighting, blood, decapitations, and more. The series also
sends a dangerous and irresponsible message to teenage fans by equating
violence with sexual excitement. In many scenes, characters become aroused by
fighting. For example, in one episode, Lilah bites Wesley's ear and shoves
him to the floor. After a bit of rough foreplay, she and Wesley are lying on
the floor together. Wesley's head moves out of the frame toward her legs.
She smiles with pleasure and breathes heavily, suggesting that he is
performing oral sex on her.

7.
Girlfriends

UPN/
9:00 p.m. (ET/PT) Monday --not
ranked last season

Girlfriends has earned comparisons to
HBO'sSex in
the City for its frank treatment of
the sex lives of four friends living in Los Angeles.

No subject seems to be off
limits for Girlfriends. Script
writers will mine any topic for a cheap laugh, including adultery,
pornography, and kinky sex practices. Sometimes the script writers try to
pass off sleaze as social conscientiousness. In one episode, for example,
Joan and Maya are watching footage Lynn has taped for a documentary on HIV
prevention which demonstrates the correct way to put on a condom. Joan and
Maya make crude comments about the size of the male model's penis. Maya gasps,
"Oh my god, is that a penis?" Lynn answers, "Of course it's a penis. That's
where the condom goes." Maya responds, "Shoot, condom. Hell, that thing
needs a two-ply garbage bag."

8. Will
& Grace

NBC/ 9:00 p.m. (ET/PT)
Thursday -- ranked #3 last season

This NBC comedy is built
on the friendship between Will Truman and Grace Adler – a gay man and a
straight woman.

Given the series' basic
premise, sexual content, both homo- and hetero-, is common. This season, Will & Grace continued its track
record of pushing the envelope for sexual content on broadcast TV to the
limits -- even though the bed-hopping Grace has finally gotten married.
Content this season included vulgar anatomical references, jokes about
alcoholism and drug addiction, references to oral sex, masturbation, kinky
practices, and infidelity. In one particularly offensive episode, Grace wants
to make a sex tape for her husband but doesn't know how to go about it. Jack
helps her by videotaping her in the shower, where, viewers are to assume, he
catches her masturbating.

9.
Friends

NBC/ 8:00 p.m. (ET/PT)
Thursday -- ranked #4 last season

With one season left to
go, Friends continues to be one
of the raciest sitcoms in prime time, and its early-evening time slot makes it
that much more objectionable. All six regulars have been sexually promiscuous,
and dialogue has contained vulgar language and explicitly sexual content. In
past episodes, sexual promiscuity, masturbation, Monica's endorsement of
Chandler's fondness for porn, and Joey's many sexual partners have served as
fodder for jokes. Last season Rachel gave birth to Ross's child, the result
of a one-night stand.

In one particularly
appalling episode from this season, Monica tries to surprise her husband,
Chandler (who is out of town for business) by showing up at his hotel room.
She walks in on him as he is masturbating while watching pornography.
Chandler tries to quickly change the channel so she won't know what he was
doing, and switches it to a shark-attack program, leaving Monica to conclude
that he gets aroused by "shark porn." Far from being disgusted by the idea,
Monica later tries to get him in the mood by popping in a tape of "shark
porn."

CBS's voyeuristic reality
show, Big Brother always ups
the ante for sex and foul language on prime time TV. Any one episode of Big Brother can contain upward of
twenty bleeped and un-bleeped curse words. It's also not unusual for harsher
obscenities like "shit" and "fuck" to slip past the network censors. Sexual
activity tends to be commonplace in the house, too.

Sexual content this season
has included everything from graphic sexual encounters, to scenes of women
showering together while the men watch, to frank discussions of sexual
practices. In one episode, housemate Chiara suggests playing "porno password"
with Roddy then later pretends to have an orgasm while a female housemate
applies sunscreen to her back. In another episode, housemates Lisa and Eric
are shown in bed together with his hands up her shirt. In another, the
houseguests are asked to undress and exchange clothing while standing in a vat
of slime. For this exercise, the women are wearing only bikinis, the men only
t-shirts and shorts.

Parents Television Council,
www.parentstv.org, PTC,
Clean Up TV Now, Because our children are watching, The
nation's most influential advocacy organization, Protecting
children against sex, violence and profanity in
entertainment, Parents Television Council Seal of Approval,
and Family Guide to Prime Time Television
are trademarks of the Parents Television Council.